a blog that reminds you: just stay calm. no need to sparkle.

Month: September 2004

Sarah disputes that I packed yesterday. I did pack! Between the hours of 2:30 and 5:30. That’s right, sista. Today was much more packing-filled. It feels good to just toss stuff out. I am a terribly packyratty person, so I’m really amazed at myself.

Things here are madness. Which makes sense, considering the move and all.

This past weekend: Wedding in Michigan. A ceremony, a reception, all the basics, but wrapped up in light and happiness and emotion, in seeing old friends and in crisp blue sky fall days.

Monday: Flew home to Buffalo to whisk away my parents’ car. Gorged on cheesecake at the mecca of all diners in Rochester with Deanna and her fabulous housemates.

Tuesday: Drove in ridiculous monsoonish rain from Buffalo to D.C. Feared for life, scolded self for fearing for life. Listened to the same Hanson song on my sister’s mix CD for the last hour of the trip. It’s embarassing to admit that this kept me going, but it did… ‘Cause the minutes seem like hours and the hours seem like days… So true!

Wednesday: Packety pack packed. Had lunch with one of my old bosses. Made spaghetti sauce with Sarah. No disasters to report, shockingly enough. We shall see how it tastes. It’s in the fridge.

I’m having people over for dinner on Thursday, so I called my grandmother to get her spaghetti sauce recipe. I never got the recipe — I told her that I was going to a wedding this weekend, so we started talking about marriage. She told me how a friend, at 17, was choosing between two suitors — one who was rich and one who treated her like gold.

Imagine my 79 year-old Italian grandmother telling/yelling this: “The rich one — he had the money! You know? His father owned a funeral parlor. He would take her out; he would take her out to fancy dinners in the hearse. She wanted the fantasy. You should always marry the one who treats you nicer.”

Apparently the friend eventually married Nick, the nicer guy, though she may have continued to dream about nights on the town in a hearse.

1) Quit job. You didn’t need that pesky money anyways.
2) Set your sights on a cold and windy city.
3) Tell your roommates you love them to bits, but you’re leaving.
4) Pack your meager belongings into secondhand cardboard boxes. Realize that you own very little except for books and typewriters. Wonder why you’re such a dork.
5) Start “the cupboard diet” which consists only of foodstuffs that you currently own. Consume ice cream at rapid pace.
6) Make new friends, think about how much you love your job and think D.C. is full of cultural riches.
7) Freak out.
8) Tell everyone you’re freaking out.
9) Realize that freaking out just comes with the territory on this one.
10) Buy some plane tickets and train tickets, and weasel the use of your family’s car for four days.
11) Freak out.
12) Tell everyone you’re freaking out.
13) Breathe real deep and feel real free.
14) Freak out.

sarah’s friend jason asked how I’d been lately (I think because I was jumping up and down or looking particularly smiley). “i’m squeezing the last drops of awesomeness of out washington, d.c.,” I replied. to which he said: “carpe district!”

so, this week’s theme is carpe district. i already had a really fun weekend which included:

-stumbling upon a yard sale full of vintage clothing and finding three great things that actually fit
-stopping over at doran and tina’s house after the yard sale for delicious banana pancakes
-going to an improv show with people from my class

-hanging out with emily and co.
-wandering around a really cool photography exhibit at the smithsonian
-wandering some more through the botanical gardens on a perfectly sunny day with josh
-happening upon a linden tree (“lindsay” means “from the isle of the linden tree” according to those baby name books)

Sometimes I think strangers have the answers. Did you ever play those late-80s computer games that involved some kind of quest? You entered your DOS command and launched into a world navigated via arrow keys, with scritchy graphics and a tinny soundtrack. These games always seemed to involve interrogating random strangers. Look at that knight standing innocently by the stable! Let’s ask him for a clue to the treasure! And then you had to ask your question four ways until he finally gave you your clue. (Ok, maybe I was just a dork and no one else played these things.)

Anyways, sometimes I try to navigate reality that way. This morning, the almost toothless African American man who hands me my free newspaper at the Metro looked at me and declared: “You’re in good spirits. You’re going to be all right today.” And I felt like he knew something I didn’t.

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One hour later: I just realized I left my lunch on the Metro. Hmm. Is that part of the game too? (Ok. I’m beginning to see how easy it is to become insane by picking a game/t.v. show/movie and thinking you’re in it.)

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UPDATE 9/20: At the Metro this morning, as a visibly pregnant woman in overalls walked by, the man who hands out free newspaper greeted her and said: “That’s a baby boy; that’s gonna be a baby boy.”